Carissmo
by UndyingEmbers
Summary: Set one year after FLF. Tavi sends Max out on a mission to deal with a bandit problem in the Redhill Heights. It turns out that the leader of those bandits is someone that Max knew from his time in the Legions. [Max/Male!OC]
1. Chapter 1

What Max wouldn't have given for of Magnus's experiments to send a boulder crashing through the ceiling right now.

"This," cried Senator Valerius, "is an immeasurable abuse of power." The pompous ass's manicured fingers were practically clutching at the podium. The new Senatorium of Appia was restructured from one of the ancient buildings, a crumbling ruin brought to its former glory by the efforts of the College of the Romanics. Though not as large as the old Senatorium of Alera Imperia, it still had its own impressive splendor. An amphitheater descended onto the Senate floor below, the back wall a painted mural of a map of Alera. Magnus had really outdone himself on this project.

"Recognizing the Marat, Canim, and Iceman states was horrendous enough. But the very notion that we can allow these other _creatures_ into the Senate…" the senator went on and on and on. Max sat next to Tavi as the two of them were forced to listen to this blather. Max was counting the number of tiles on the senate floor while Tavi looked serious as he cast his gaze on Senator Valerius. Crows, it still felt strange to see the individual pieces of stone that put this building together instead of having it be one large, smooth structure like a normal stonecrafted building. Some part of Max still worried that the whole place would come crashing down on their heads, though right now he supposed it wouldn't be a bad thing. Better than listening to this idiot.

"Ever since coming to power, our First Lord has done nothing but trample on our rights and the rights of our Citizens, who have sacrificed so much for our Realm. And what does Gaius Tavaris do in return? He overrides the collective will of our most esteemed and forces these changes upon the Realm at a time when we need stability and strength."

A loud rumbling sigh was heard as Senator Theoginus rose. Max felt a small twang in his chest when he saw Veradis's uncle. He had recently resigned himself to the fact that she simply didn't return his feelings. Understanding didn't make it any less painless. "I don't know about everyone else here, but I am damn tired of running the same routine over and over again. Every crowbegotten time we push for a motion, and every time the good Senator Valerius complains about how it is not done and the senate has to stall for weeks. I don't know if you've noticed, but the world is changing. We can no longer rely on tradition to keep us safe. If we are to survive then we must adapt to these changes."

The proceedings mercifully ended, and Max followed Tavi out of the Senatorium outside.

"Can I punch him please?" asked Max, referring to Senator Valerius. "If I have to listen to that slive one more time, I'm going to break something."

Tavi let out a breath that was both a laugh and a sigh. "It won't last long. This is just the dying gasp of the old ways, and he knows it. With the freeman now able to vote, his supporters have been dropping off."

"Well, they're sure taking their time voting _him_ out," said Max.

The new capital was divided into two sections: Appia and New Appia. In the center were the original ruins. As Tavi had ordered, every building was either carefully preserved for future study or reconstructed in the ways of the ancient Romans: entirely without furycrafting. Even after knowing all that Tavi had accomplished, Max had still found the prospect daunting and baffling when he first heard what Tavi had hoped to do here, but Tavi had been very hopeful, and it turned out that quite a lot of people (mostly freemen) were eager to join Magnus. Despite a year of their best efforts, though, the only buildings that were anyway useable were the Academy and the Senatorium.

New Appia hadn't so much been built as it just sprung up around the ruins. Old Appia took a really long time to build, and the people who flooded to the capital needed more immediate housing. Like all buildings in Alera, most of the buildings in New Appia were furycrafted, though some people have tried their hand at constructing their own houses. Also, the Marat and Canim who decided to settle in the new capital brought along with them their own methods of building homes. Max had even felt a little touched when he saw an Aleran child and a Marat child playing together a few days ago.

"I notice you didn't answer my question," said Max, cracking his knuckles.

Tavi just smiled. He led Max off the newly cobbled streets of Old Appia towards an overgrown ruin a ways away from the Senatorium. Once they were out of sight, Max felt a popping sensation in his ears as Tavi windcrafted a sound barrier to prevent them from being overheard.

"I actually need you to do something. Something that requires your capacity as a Cursor," said Tavi.

"Oh that should be fun." Max smirked. "And what does the high and mighty First Lord want with his humble agent?"

"The Redhill Heights are having trouble with a group of outlaws," explained Tavi. "Normally, this wouldn't be very noteworthy, but the count in charge of that area has strangely refused any help offered by the crown and High Lord Phrygius to deal with this problem."

"Like the good count doesn't want crown forces poking around his territory," said Max.

"Exactly," said Tavi. "I want you to do two things: one, deal with the outlaws, second, find out what Count Otho Fabius is hiding. Do you think you can manage?"

"Sure thing, Tavi. I have one question, though: why me?"

"Instinct," Tavi said levelly.

"Ah," said Max. The line of Gaius was known to have the gift of foretelling, and Max knew firsthand how useful Tavi's gift was. "Well if that's that case, then I guess I'll have to get going then," he said somewhat mockingly.

 _15 years earlier_

 _"Hey, bumpkin." Uli could hear the dull, loud voice of one of the other boys he was sharing his Legion tent with, a heavyset young man by the name of Bortus. "How many_ pagana _does it take to light a furylamp?"_

 _Uli ignored him._

 _"I said," Bortus said louder and more slowly, "how many stupid backwater hicks like Ulixius does it take to light a furylamp?"_

 _"I don't know, Bortus," said one of the other boys, Nonus. "How many_ pagana _does it take to light a furylamp?"_

 _"It doesn't matter," said Bortus, "because none of them can talk right."_

 _"Shove off!" yelled Uli. "None'a you are Citizens neither."_

 _Bortus and Nonus erupted in a fit of ugly laughter. The Legion had no shortage of men from remote rural villages like Uli. Uli was just unlucky enough to have been placed in the same spear as these two louts. He sent his fury, Rachni to one of the wooden bedposts on the bunkbed Bortus and Nonus were sharing. As the two of them were laughing it up, Rachni weakened the bedpost, snapping it in two and sending Nonus crashing down, nearly crushing Bortus._

 _Uli couldn't help but let out a laugh of his own. Bortus and Nonus turned to him. "You think that's funny, bumpkin?"_

 _It was then that Uli realized that Bortus was quite a bit bigger than him. He tried to make a run for the tent flap, but Nonus was right on it. He cut Uli off and shoved him into Bortus. Uli struggled as the two boys shoved him to the floor._

 _"You know, I know a bit of earthcraft," said Nonus. "Why don't we shove that bumpkin's face in the mud?"_

 _"What's going on here?" a loud, booming voice demanded._

 _"It's none of your business," Bortus snarled._

 _"Really now?" The new voice sounded confident to the point of cockiness, and Uli could feel Nonus and Bortus stiffen as the newcomer stepped closer. Uli took advantage of their hesitance to break free of his bullies' hold. He elbowed Nonus in the ribs and pushed himself off the ground. Nonus cried out and tried to regain his hold on Uli. While that was going on, the newcomer boxed Bortus in the ear, knocking him to the ground. Seeing what happened to his friend, Nonus tried to lunge at the newcomer, but the new boy easily dodged and punched Nonus in the gut, knocking the wind out of him._

 _Bortus got up and tried to take a swing at the newcomer, but, with the strength that only an earthcrafter can pull off with as much grace as the newcomer was showing, he lifted Bortus over his head and threw him through the tent flap. Apparently realizing that he was seriously outmatched, Nonus ran out of the tent after his friend._

 _Uli wiped his face with his tunic before looking up at the newcomer. Like Uli, the other_ legionare _was merely fifteen years old. However, despite being very young, the other boy already had a large frame while Uli was still lanky and awkward. Though not conventionally handsome, the other boy's wolfish grey eyes and cocky smirk gave him a roguish charm._

 _"Thanks for that," said Uli._

 _"Don't mention it," said the new_ legionare _as he held out his hand and helped pull Uli up. "I'm Maximus."_

 _"Ulixius," said Uli._


	2. Chapter 2

_15 years earlier_

 _As Uli got to know Max a little better, he felt completely intimidated. It wasn't that Max scared him per se. It was just that everything about Antillar Maximus made Uli feel inadequate. As the son of a High Lord, even a bastard son, Max had had many opportunities that Uli did not. At fifteen, Max had taken lessons from Sir Nedus, one of the greatest dueling masters in Alera's history, and was very well-educated in warfare and Legion deployment. Max also had tremendous furycrafting, showing talent in all six elements while Uli was only moderately gifted with woodcrafting._

 _This was in addition to his natural charm. Oh, Max had a way with the camp girls. Whenever Uli would pass by the camp followers' tents with Max, they would always hear fits of giggles directed at his friend. Max could also keep Uli enthralled for hours with jokes and stories from Antillus._

 _At first, the other recruits were too off-put by Max's status and stature to want to be near him, and Uli had always had difficulty connecting to people, so he and Max spent a lot of their early careers as_ legionares _together. Though Max eventually won over the other soldiers over with his charm, he and Uli still kept company at meals and after training._

 _For the first few weeks, they trained marching formations and conditioning. In the morning, they would practice marching on the earthcrafted ring in the center of camp. Recruits with earthcrafting talent would practice marching on the makeshift causeway, their furies allowing them to march faster and get less tired. Recruits without earthcrafting, like Uli, would simply run laps inside of the circle to build strength and endurance. In the afternoons, they would swim or lift weighted_ rudia _to build muscles in their arms._

 _Uli had no idea how he would do once they would start actual combat training. Back on his grandpa's farm, he had some experience fighting with slings, a shovel, and even a spear once or twice. Out in the farmlands near the wilderness, there was always a danger from snakes, slives, mountain lions, and the like. Even the girls had to learn how to drive off unwanted beasts; it was simply a matter of survival. But other than that, Uli never had any formal training in his life._

 _So it came as a great surprise that Max was the one who struggled the most when out practicing with the_ rudius _. Uli and Max were side-by-side in the formation, Bortus and Nonus on Uli's other side. Centurion Paullus was drilling them. The centurion kept criticizing Max, constantly trying to get Max to keep his elbow up as they practiced that same thrust over and over. It wasn't that Uli didn't struggle. Centurion Paullus had yelled at him to the point of tears many times, and Uli still had bruises on his arms where the centurion had hit him with the baton. For all that Bortus and Nonus were bullying, lazy slives, they proved to be fairly competent_ legionares _. They made the least number of mistakes among the new recruits._

 _Max caught Centurion Paullus's baton on a painful angle between the shield and his knee. His kneecap broke with a painful crack, and the Antillan fell down with a cry. Uli turned his head towards him, horrified. It was only because he practiced that drill over and over that Uli was just able to get his shield up in time to block a strike from the centurion. He was unable to maintain his footing, however, and the strike from the centurion knocked Uli to the ground right on top of Max. Uli could see Bortus and Nonus smirking at him and Max, taking pleasure in their failure. Evidently, they hadn't forgotten that day in the tent._

 _"Never drop your shield," said the centurion as he stood over Max and Uli. "The Legion's greatest strength is its ability to act as a unit. You need to be able to hold your shield for the man beside you, just as he would for you."_

 _Uli shared a brief glance with Max before the centurion yelled, "Get him to the fountain."_

 _Uli got to his feet. He helped Max stand up and let the Antillan lean on him as they went to get some water for Max to watercraft his knee. Max sat himself down on a stool as Uli drew water from the pump in the center on the earthcrafted ring. Max's brows were furrowed together, but Uli saw something other than pain in his friend's expression._

 _"You'll get it, Max," said Uli. He still felt a little self-conscious over the fact that he spoke with a drawl. "It'll just take some time 's all."_

 _"The strokes we have to do," said Max. "They're just so clumsy."_

 _"Clumsy?" asked Uli._

 _"It's just, the stance is so restricting. If you need to parry, you can't easily move your sword. None of it makes sense. Does it feel that way to you?"_

 _"Can't say it does," said Uli. "I mean I wouldn't know. I've never held a sword in my life."_

 _"Hm." Max drew his gaze away from Uli. They went back to their cohort once Max healed his leg._

 _Uli would get a chance to speak to Centurion Paullus later that evening. The men were done with training and were spending their free time however they felt. Max was certainly out drinking and playing cards with the other_ legionares _or trying to convince one of the camp girls to take him to bed. Though Uli would sometimes join him when there were no girls involved, he preferred to spend time by himself making wood carvings or reading a novel. He avoided going back to the tent, instead finding a quiet spot in the camp where he could keep to himself._

 _Uli was sitting in the grass carving a block of wood when he spotted the centurion out for a walk. Uli's hands clenched. Though the other recruits have accepted yelling and humiliation from veteran_ legionares _as a facet of their existence, Uli still could not help but feel a little rage inside when a centurion publicly yelled out his weaknesses in front of the whole cohort, and Uli was still seething from when Centurion Paullus had hurt Max that morning._

 _The centurion must have sensed Uli's ire. The next moment, Paullus suddenly shouted, "Ulixius, stand and salute when addressing a centurion."_

 _Uli scrambled to his feet and hurried a salute. Max had explained to him that when a centurion or other veteran yelled at a recruit off the field that they were just messing with the recruit, but there really wasn't anything that Uli could do about it, so he did his best to obey. Centurion Paullus corrected his posture vigorously, which only added to Uli's anger over the earlier incident._

 _Finally, Centurion Paullus let out a grunt of approval and turned away._

 _"You didn't hav'ta break 'is knee!" The words came out of Uli's mouth before he could stop them. He only had a moment to regret it before the centurion suddenly got face-to-face with him._

 _"What was that, Ulixius?" he asked._

 _"Oh, um, sorry, Centurion Paullus, sir!"_

 _"No, recruit, you definitely said something."_

 _"I…I mean," stuttered Uli, "Maximus…he would of got it…he didn't need…I mean…"_

 _"At ease," Paullus commanded. Uli thought that Paullus would yell at him again, but the centurion simply said in a steady and calm, but firm voice, "sometimes pain is the only way a recruit learns. There are men like Antillar who learn how to be great fencers before they join the legion and are shocked when they find that it is completely different from what they have been taught. On top of that, the boy is one hell of a metalcrafter. Nothing less extreme than a real injury would ever get it through to him. You notice that I've never broken any of_ your _bones, correct?"_

 _It was true. Though Uli never gave the centurion a shortage of things to correct on the training field, Paullus had never struck him hard enough to harm him like that. "No, sir."_

 _"You didn't need it to get the point across. And you've noticed that you've made fewer mistakes in training than Antillar had, right, farm boy?"_

 _It was also true. Uli was definitely learning the legion style of fighting faster than Max was. "Yes, sir."_

 _Centurion Paullus's gaze was completely level with Uli's, and Uli had no doubt at the sincerity of what the centurion said next. "There is no doubt that Antillar is one of the finest young men I have ever seen. Strong fighter, strong crafter, commands the loyalty of most everyone he meets. If he keeps it up, he could grow up to be a legend. But I'm not here to train legends, I'm here to train_ legionares _, and by the furies, I will make a_ legionare _out of that boy even if it kills me. Is that understood?"_

 _"Yes, sir," said Uli._

 _"Good," said Centurion Paullus, "now go run laps around the ring to cool your rage."_

 _"Yes, sir." Uli saluted before running down to the track. All the things he had been worried about – his lack of training, the fact that he had absolutely no metal or earth crafting – Uli never thought that they would be an advantage._

Max looked wistfully out the windows at the Knights Aeris who were holding up the coach he was riding, wishing he could just step outside and ride the winds. He hadn't done any real cursor work since he had first been sent to the First Alera, and for good reason. As one of the First Lord's _singulares_ , most everyone in the Realm was sure to recognize him now, and his large frame certainly didn't do him any favors when it came to blending in. Of course, what was slightly less known among the populace was that he was rather skilled at using watercraft to alter his appearance. Thinking back to that night below the old First Lord's palace brought a smile to his face that was both bitter and remembering. Had it really been that long ago? Crows, was he really thirty now?

The coach eventually landed on a platform in the small city of Alesis. The white marble platform offered a rather breathtaking view of the mountains from the clifftop it sat on. Max could see endless fields of green over the rolling hills. Steadholds dotted the landscape below. The city itself was rather lovely. What it lacked in size and splendor, it made up for in opulence. All around, people were setting up flowers, ribbons, festive furylamps, and whatever other decorations for the Midsummer celebrations. The houses were made of the same white marble the platform was and were decorated with all sorts of fancy pillars and balconies and well-groomed front gardens. Everyone was well-dressed and rich. The servants and guards were acceptably invisible. Alesis was a popular place for Citizens to vacation, especially in the summer, a way to "get in touch" with the country without actually having to come into contact with a normal person.

For all that, the defenses were rather remarkable. The city rested high on a cliff, making it only reachable by coach or by a long, winding path leading down the mountains. The path was a valley that was surrounded by cliffs on all sides, and Max could see men up on those cliffs, ready to rain hell on whoever tried to attack the city that way. The outer rim of the city was guarded by tall towers. Knights Aeris could be seen patrolling the skies. Max was rather impressed by the defenses. Alesis would certainly make life hell for any attackers that chose to target it.

Max knew that his plan would work because Ehren had helped him come up with it. He was to arrive as himself in Alesis under the pretense of going to the mountains for a vacation during the Midsummer festival. Having Max visit the city on short notice would force Count Otho to quickly and drastically make changes to any plans or arrangements he had in place, allowing Max to better discover if he was hiding something.

 _"A man can reveal a lot from the way he tries to hide something," Ehren had said. "Look at how he immediately invited you to stay at his estate. He wants to keep an eye on you."_

Max saw the short, round frame of Count Otho approach him. The little man was dressed in very colorful robes of light cloth for the summer, an almost too pleasant smile on his face. He had a small company of three elite guards. Their armor was neat and polished, and their expressions stoic and professional.

"Tribune Antillar!" he greeted. "The journey was pleasant, I hope."

"It was fine," said Max. People who didn't know him well usually took him for a hulking brute. Max decided that this would be a good time to take advantage of that. "I'm just looking forward to enjoy all the good wine and company. Do you know where a man can get a good drink?"

Count Otho chuckled. "Well I'm sure you will have a wonderful Midsummer here. My staff will be more than pleased to attend to you. Why don't we head to my estate right now? Surely you'd like to rest after your long journey."

Just then, a face that Max never ever wanted to see came up to the Count. Senator Valerius scampered up to the count and greeted him profusely. Max still wanted to punch him in the face.

"I believe you two know each other," said Otho. "Senator Valerius is one of my Clients. He has an election coming up."

"Delighted." The Senator stuck his nose up at Max, looking at him as if he were an insect. "This is my chance to get acquainted with all the important Citizenry of Alera."

Max briefly glanced at the tiny black dots in the background that represented the Steadholds and silently pleaded to the freemen to hurry up and vote this idiot out of the Senate.

"Hmm," said Max. "I've had enough politics in Appia. I just want to get on with my vacation."

"Yes of course," said Count Otho, smiling. "Just come this way."

The count let Max back to his home. It was smaller than Lord and Lady Placida's home, but it was filled to the gills with ornate tapestries, valuable vases, and Midsummer decorations. There were flowers everywhere. Max was constantly trying not to sneeze up a storm. He definitely wasn't going to let Tavi hear the end of his complaints when he got back to Appia.

In the center of it all was a well-sized great hall. Like the rest of the house, this place was decorated for the Midsummer festival. Servants hurried to and fro to get everything set up.

A young maid caught his eye. She was setting up a large centerpiece for the decorations. The flowers and woodwork danced under her touch as she employed woodcrafting to get the plants to grow to the ceiling. Max put on his best smile and walked up to her.

"Hello there." The young lady nearly jumped when Max spoke to her. "That's some impressive crafting."

"Thank you, my lord," she replied. "There's always a lot of work to do for Midsummer."

"I can see that," said Max. "What is your name?"

"Epponina, my lord," she said.

"Please." Max lowered his voice and leaned closer to her. "Call me Max."

"Oh." Epponina blushed. "I really should get back to work."

Max let out a laugh. "All right then. Maybe I'll see you later?"

Epponina turned back to the flowers, but not before giving Max a knowing smile. "We'll see."

Max winked at her and walked away.

That evening, Max slipped away from the count's estate to go drinking with the guards. He used watercrafting to alter his appearance. His wolfish grey eyes dulled a bit, and his distinguishing features became more brutish and generic.

Once he found a bar where a group of guards were playing cards at, it didn't take much for Max to get himself into their game. It was a very welcome change to the perfumed nightmare that was Count Otho's estate. He had a wonderful time drinking, gambling, and making jokes with the men. He posed as a merchant's bodyguard whose charge was trying to move his wares through the mountains and was worried about the outlaw problem.

One of the guards snorted. "These blighters have the whole crowsbegotten mountain locked down. Damn near impossible to get anywhere without being robbed."

Another guard chimed in. "The count has everyone he can send hunting them down. They'll be squashed in no time."

"I'm not so sure about that," said the first guard. "They fight like something I've never seen. They strike quickly, somehow getting past the sentry furies, disrupting our formations and leave with the cargo before we even know it."

"Any advice for dealing with them?" asked Max.

The guards looked at each other. "I'd say your friend should avoid the mountain entirely," one of them said. "Unless he can pay to move all his stuff by coach. The bandits love attacking Citizens and rich merchants."

"Really?" asked Max. "The freemen have no trouble?"

"Not that we can see," said the first guard. "As a matter of fact, I heard that the outlaws were getting help from the freemen."

"Any freeman who helps the outlaws is a fool," said the second guard. "The count will punish anyone who throws in their lot with them."

"Well, the count has also put a huge bounty on any captured outlaw, yet no freeman has ever come forth," the first guard argued.

Max spend the evening in good company drinking and gambling. In the morning, he would have some work to do.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

Scutum - a type of shield used by the ancient Romans.  
Pilum - a Roman javelin with a metal tip that was designed to bend or break off on impact.

All my sources on ancient Rome are from the Metatron. You can find his YouTube channel here: channel/UCIjGKyrdT4Gja0VLO40RlOw

 _14 years earlier_

 _The average legion rarely saw actual combat within the relatively peaceful confines of Alera. Unless they were stationed on any of the borders,_ legionares _only ever saw action with bandits and the occasional conflict between two High Lords. It was for that reason that Lord and Lady Placida would send their legions to the Shieldwall to get experience fighting the Icemen and the reason Uli found himself marching north._

 _When he and Max got the news that they would be heading towards Antillus, Max grew quiet and pale. He only got worse the farther north they went. The Antillan would drink heavily when they stopped for camp after a day's march and avoid talking to the other_ legionares _until he fell into a drunken slumber for the night. Any attempt from Uli to ask Max what was wrong was met with a quick rebuke to leave him alone._

 _There was another_ legionare _in his and Max's spear who was fairly close to Max. Uli and Garius had never spoken much when Max wasn't with them, but he seemed decent enough. Garius was a well-spoken young man who carried himself in the impeccable manner that Uli associated with the Citizenry. He stood with his back straight and was well-groomed. If Uli had to guess, Garius was probably the son of a lord, perhaps a count, which was why Uli had been a little careful of what he said to Garius. He knew what happened to freemen who slipped and said the wrong thing to a Citizen. But Garius seemed fine so far. He never made fun of Uli or anyone else for their rural accents and never expected special treatment for his status. More importantly, Garius knew Max since before either of them joined the legions. If anyone could figure out what was wrong with Max, it would be Garius._

 _Garius frowned when Uli brought up Max's behavior. "You know that Max is the son of Lord Antillus, correct?"_

 _Uli nodded. "I figured it had somethin' to do with the fact that he was goin' home."_

 _Garius spoke slowly, as if pondering what he wanted to say. "It is difficult. Max is a bastard, but he is still Lord Raucus's oldest son, and Max's stepmother, the current Lady Antillus, sees him as a threat. The situation is rather…ugly."_

 _"_ _Ugly?" asked Uli. "How so?"_

 _Garius's eyes narrowed. "It's not something you should get into."_

 _In Uli's mind, he could just hear the dismissal._ No need to worry your simple paganus head over this. This is Citizen business. _A flash of rage and frustration flitted into his mind._

 _"_ _Are you all right?" asked Garius. It was then that Uli realized that his fists were clenched tightly over his thighs. He immediately snapped out of it. He had no reason at all to think that of Garius. Garius hadn't done any harm to him. Besides, Uli was probably prying. If Max didn't want to talk about his family life, then it was none of Uli's business._

 _"_ _Oh, nothing." Uli rubbed his legs. "I just wish that there was somethin' I could do to help himm."_

 _Garius nodded and turned his attention towards his dinner._

 _The march went on, aided by the fury-crafted causeways. Uli rode in one of the wagons along with the others who didn't have any earthcrafting. When the legion made camp, Uli and Garius would sit together. Uli didn't bring up Max again; he could tell that Garius was done with that conversation._

 _Uli and Garius were sitting by a campfire on their last night before they would make it to the Shieldwall. Uli smiled and pulled out one of the flasks he kept from his grandfather's house. He took a swig from it before offering some to Garius._

 _"_ _What is this?" Garius sniffed the opening and grimaced._

 _"_ _Some'a the steadholders back home had a touch of firecrafting," explained Uli. "Learned how to make some real strong booze from barley and wheat by evaporatin' the stuff over and over. We call it 'spirits'."_

 _Garius frowned at took a sip. The young Citizen almost immediately went into a fit of coughs. "Crows," he spat._

 _Uli laughed. "Better'n a Rhodesian red, right?"_

 _"_ _That was absolutely disgusting." Garius handed back the flask, still coughing._

 _Just then, they saw Max walking towards the tents._

 _"_ _Hey, Max," Uli called out, holding up the flask. "Want something to drink?" If anything could draw Max in, it was a good drink._

 _Max walked over and took the flask from Uli. "What is this?"_

 _"_ _The best thing in the world," said Garius, trying so hard to hold back a chuckle. Max cocked an eyebrow at him._

 _"_ _Just drink it," said Uli._

 _Max shook his head and put the flask to his lips. He took an even bigger swallow of the drink than Garius did. "Crows!" he yelled, and Uli could tell from the way Max was clutching his sword that Max was using metalcrafting to hold down his coughing. Uli and Garius burst out in a fit of laughter. "That's the most vile thing I've ever drunk! What the bloody crows is this!"_

 _Uli told him the same thing he told Garius. Max looked at him like he had grown two heads. "You people are crazy."_

 _"_ _Will get you drunker much quicker'n wine." Uli took the flash back and swallowed a huge gulp of the spirits amidst his companions' looks of astonishment. Eventually, they had to go back to their bedrolls for the night with Max complaining about not getting the taste out of his mouth the whole way. Uli just smiled. Even for a moment, it felt good to see the old Max shine through._

 _A few days after the Placidan legion reached the Shieldwall, Uli saw his first battle. The scouts had caught wind of a mighty cold storm coming south, the work of the giant, ape-like creatures known as the Icemen. It was dead cold up north, cold enough to freeze one's balls off. A persistent firecrafting was put in place above the_ legionares _, keeping them from freezing to death, and instilling courage in them. Uli stood in formation with Max on his left. Garius stood on the other side of Max, his face as stone cold as the weather._

 _A large, white wind headed down towards the Shieldwall, where the legions waited. The centurions shouted for everyone to ready themselves. Uli and the others readied their_ pila _. As the Icemen came bounding down towards them, the_ legionares _threw the_ pila _at the incoming horde as the bowmen released their arrows. Uli called on Rachni to guide his_ pilum _, but in the chaos of the arrows and_ pila _falling into the attackers, it was difficult to tell if his_ pilum _hit._

 _They were engaged before he knew it. Large Icemen smashed into their formations with their giant clubs. The_ legionares _pushed back against these creatures._

 _An Iceman came up towards Garius and crushed his_ scutum _. His arm broke trying to hold against the attack, and he fell on his back. Max let out a loud roar and threw himself at the Iceman, using his earthcrafted strength to push back on it and drive his gladius into it._

 _Uli was engaged with another Iceman. He deflected blow after blow with his_ scutum _. His battered arm barely holding it up as he tried to stab the Iceman with his gladius. A lucky blow caused him to drop his sword. Almost instinctively, he reached for the second_ pilum _he carried, using Rachni to guide his weapon the way metalcrafters used their gladii and drove the wooden_ pilum _in the Iceman's eye._

 _His cohort rotated, and Uli was pulled further back into the formation. Max dragged Garius, and more_ legionares _took the young man to the healers._

 _The fight went on as Icemen and_ legionares _alike fell all around. The sound of a large horn reverberated through the fight, signaling the Icemen to a retreat. The_ legionares _pulled back to the Shieldwall._

 _A funeral for the fallen was held that night. The bodies were placed in wooden coffins and placed in lines so that the survivors could stand before them and morn before the remains were sent to the families. Max and Uli stood side by side. Garius was with them, having just come from the healer's tent after recovering from having his ribcage smashed in and his arm broken. He moved and breathed delicately. All stood in silence. Even Nonus and Bortus managed to scrounge up some respect and dignity for the fallen._

 _A tall, imposing figure flew over the mourners and landed between them and the fallen accompanied by three Knights Aeris. Uli was nearly floored by the resemblance that man bore to his friend, Max. Other than being very large and muscular, both men had auburn hair and grey eyes. However, while Max looked more roguish and jovial, this man's face was hard and somber. When Uli looked at Max, he could see that Max's fists were clenched and his shoulders had tightened, his expression a stone wall._

 _Lord Antillus's voice boomed over them, aided by windcrafting to carry his speech over the_ legionares _. "Men, I came here to say thank you for putting your lives on the line for the good of Alera. A lot of people from the southern cities don't think much of what we do up here, but the fight up here_ is _important. Your fellow men did_ not _die in vain. Every battle won means that Alera enjoys peace for just a little bit longer. What you did and what your fellow men did today was vital, and everyone in Alera should thank them, mourn them, and remember them."_

 _Uli reached up and placed his hand on Max's shoulder. When Max looked over at him, Uli smiled somberly and squeezed his friend's shoulder. Max nodded at him, and Uli could feel Max's shoulders relax, and the two of them spend the rest of the service in silence._

Max definitely noticed some strange behavior from his host. While staying at the count's estate, the Count's staff watched his every move. The same set of servants were always around wherever he went, and the Count constantly checked up on him to see if everything was to his liking. Other than that, though, Max didn't find anything more than that. Max had to hand it to Count Otho; the man was a slippery slive. Max used every trick he recalled as a Cursor to spy on the count from going disguised among the servants to trying to infiltrate the count's study and chambers for documents, but no one knew anything shady about the count, and the count kept his secrets secure by a wide variety of craftings that Ehren would no doubt have bypassed easily, but Max's furies were far too powerful to get by undetected.

Max had never been one for politics. Tavi was the one who was more adept at knowing the inner workings of the Realm and could maneuver his way around Citizens and freemen alike. But Max knew that Count Otho didn't want Realm officials investigating the outlaws, so he knew that it was exactly what he should do. He gathered the handful of _legionares_ that Tavi had sent with him and set off to leave the city. They did not try to be sneaky about it. After packing for a few days in the country, Max and his company rode their horses right up to the front gate of Alesis just to see what Count Otho would do.

It came as absolutely no surprise when Count Otho approached him at the gates.

"Ah, Sir Maximus," said the count, "imagine my surprise to hear that you're leaving so soon."

Max just smiled. "I just thought I'd go visit the country. I heard that it was just so beautiful this time of year."

"Normally, I would agree with you," said the count, "but with the bandits and the _croach_ , I'm afraid that you won't get much out of your visit."

"All the same," said Max, "I came all the way to the Redhill Heights. I may as well see the bloody mountains after all."

"I'd say that Alesis has all the sights anyone could ever hope to see," said the count. "But if you are still adamant about this trip, then might I offer you an escort? My men know the mountains very well and can take you to the most beautiful locations."

The count was so obvious in his attempt to direct him that Max almost felt sorry for him. "No thank you," he said. "I have men here who were some of the best scouts in the First Alera. We will manage just fine."

The count's smile twitched, and his eyes narrowed. Despite that, he kept his cheerful tone. "I'm afraid I must insist on providing extra security. As long as you are here, your safety is my responsibility, and with bandits and the vord about, it is simply too dangerous for me to allow any risks."

Max laughed. "All right, Otho. Whatever helps you sleep at night."

As Max and his escort went down the winding path down the mountain out of Alesis, he took more notes on the defenses. Because the city was surrounded by cliffs on all sides, this was the only path of entry besides flying, and whoever would try to take the city would have to go through a nightmare of a gauntlet. In addition to the guards and towers placed alongside the road, the whole place was brimming with furies just waiting to be released and swarm any attacker who approached.

Max waited until they were all of one hundred meters of the city before giving the signal to his men to take off. Those who could fly carried those who couldn't, and Max windcrafted himself into a giant, bounding leap towards the trees. Othos's men were too startled to respond and nearly fell over themselves trying to keep up with Max's company. Max met up with his men in the forest and used their woodcrafting to evade their escorts.

"Now, what, sir?" asked one of the men.

Max smiled. "Now we capture some outlaws."

Max and his men met up with a small camp of Tavi's men in the woods. Max was happy to see that Tavi had sent Schultz to help Max deal with the bandits. Max nearly dislocated Schultz's arm when they clasped hands. The men immediately got to work carrying out the plan. They took a merchant's wagon that they had requisitioned from the Crown and drove it up the main road. The causeway was broken from the war with the vord, but the infrastructure was still in place, and it led directly to Alesis. Max and his men were disguised as merchants shipping metal to the city, their earth furies pulsing out in all directions from the wagon as they traveled up the road, searching for signs of movement.

They didn't see much other than the patrols and the occasional pedestrian. It seemed that people were really concerned over bandits. Max started to get nervous after an hours-long stretch where nothing had passed and their furies found nothing until suddenly, the silence was broken by an error hitting the driver's stomach. Max called out to his men to take cover as more arrows flied out at them. He dragged the driver to cover, doing his best to keep the man alive with his fury.

The outlaws closed in on them more quickly than lightning. Before Max knew it, his men were engaged with a band of twenty men. The attackers moved in swiftly, not giving the _legionares_ any time to form up for a counterattack. Max moved through the battle like water, drawing on his furies to give him strength. None of the bandits had expected that their foe would wield the power of a High Lord and were easily incapacitated.

The skirmish only lasted a moment before the outlaws retreated into the woods. Max ordered some of his men to give chase, but the outlaws disappeared almost immediately after they fled into the trees, and the wild vord in the area would make it difficult to conduct a search.

"How the bloody crows did they get past our furies?" asked Schultz. "There's no way this group of lads could have overpowered our sentries, let alone without us noticing."

"Don't think that our furies are infallible," said Max, his voice low and flat. "Our current First Lord broke into the crowbegotten Grey Tower completely unaided."

Schultz nodded soberly.

When Max looked inside the caravan, he was surprised and begrudgingly impressed that all the goods they had packed in as part of their disguise was gone. Obviously, the skirmish had been a distraction, and the slives sent another group to rob the caravan. Still, Max couldn't believe that the thieves had managed to take _everything_. It didn't matter, though. Max's men had managed to capture five outlaws to bring in for questioning, five young men, the oldest about twenty. After binding them with metal chains, the _legionares_ packed the prisoners and the wounded in the wagon and took them back to camp.


	4. Chapter 4

_14 years earlier_

 _"Crows, Max!" Uli exclaimed. "Why didn't any 'a you tell me Garius was Placida's son?"_

 _Max laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face!"_

 _Earlier that day, Lady Placida had come to camp. She had wanted to thank Max personally for saving her son's life on the Shieldwall. Uli had made an idiot of himself, going from quiet politeness when had entered their tent and introduced herself as Garuis's mother to full-on stuttering when he figured out that she was Lady Placida to complete astonishment at the way Max had loudly and casually addressed her. Max and Garius had lunch with her and Lord Cereus._

 _"Crows," said Uli. "I fed him barley swill, Max."_

 _Max just kept laughing. "It was good for him. He didn't want to be treated differently."_

 _"Hm," Uli responded. It was easy for noble types to say that, but truth is that it rarely works that was in real life. Neither Garius nor even Max could ever know what it was like to have to scurry off the road because some lords decided to go for a race or worry whether or nor the count was going to make an incredibly stupid decision because you knew that you and the people you knew would be the one who would pay for it. They never knew what it was like to have their lives completely in someone else's hands._

 _Still, Uli had to give credit to Garius and Lady Placida. They didn't seem anything like Count Otho. Lord and Lady Placida were willing to send their own son to fight Icemen right alongside their troops. Not many people would be willing to do that._

 _Max sighed._

 _"What's wrong?" asked Uli._

 _"Lord Cereus was with us at lunch today," said Max. "And his granddaughter, Veradis, was with us."_

 _"Yeah?" Uli had caught a glimpse of the two when they came into the camp. Veradis was very lovely in an understated kind of way. Though the young lady could never match the obvious and bold beauty of Lady Placida, with her fine, cob-web thin blonde hair; her fair, blue eyes; her simple, but well-made fine dress; and her overall delicate appearance, Cereus Veradis just seemed more approachable._

 _"She turned me down," said Max. "Again."_

 _"No really?" Uli asked with mock incredulousness._

 _Max scoffed. "Jealousy is a trait of lesser men."_

 _"An' good taste is a trait of intelligent women," said Uli._

 _"I just don't get it, Uli." Max shook his head. "Let's go get a drink. A real beer this time, none of that gargant piss that passes for alcohol where you come from."_

 _Throughout the evening, especially after Max had a few drinks, the Antillan would not stop talking about Cereus Veradis. At first, Uli had fun poking fun at his friend, but Max got more and more moody about it the more time had passed, and it got to a point where Uli just wished that he would stop._

 _"You don't think there's something wrong with me, do you?" asked Max with a slight slur in his speech._

 _"Plenty," said Uli._

 _"Shut up, Uli," said Max. "You don't think that maybe if I wasn't a bastard, if I wasn't some mistake of birth, she would say yes?"_

 _"You don't know that." Uli put his hand on Max's shoulder. "'Sides, if it were true, then she doesn't deserve you. Max, you're one 'a the greatest men I've ever known. I knew it from the moment you helped me with Bortus and Nonus, an' again when you saved Garius from that Iceman. You're strong, but you only ever use it for good. That's what puts you above most men I know, noble or no."_

 _Max looked into Uli's eyes, his expression as hard to read as it ever was when he decided to be serious, and Uli suddenly became very aware that he had meant every word he said. Crows, anyone would be lucky to have Max. Max was not what anyone would consider conventionally handsome, but the way he carried himself made Uli want to let down his guard and just relax. That, coupled with his fun and kind nature, would make anyone fall for Max._

 _I would make Uli fall for Max._

 _"Uli," said Max. "Have you ever wished that things had been different? That there was some part of you that you really wanted to change."_

 _"Actually," said Uli, "yeah, I do."_

 _"Really?" asked Max. "What happened?"_

 _Uli was so tempted to just tell Max. He knew that Max would understand. It wasn't anything bad at all, but Uli knew that it would completely change the way Max saw him. His heart raced. "Umm…" he said._

 _"It's all right," said Max. "You don't have to tell me." He backed away from Uli's touch to take another swig from his beer. When he faced Uli again, his eyes were alight, and there was a smile on his face._

 _He stood up from the bar stool and looked towards the exit. The tent that served as the camp brothel stood right across. "Good talk. I'll just spend the rest of the evening by myself, if you don't mind?"_

 _"Seriously?" Uli couldn't help the incredulousness and bitterness in his tone._

 _"What?" said Max. "I can't mope about her forever, can I?"_

 _"You're…really somethin'," said Uli._

 _Max just smiled and winked at him before walking out of the tent._

 _Uli walked back to his bed nursing his jealousy. He was jealous, jealous of the girl Max was spending the night with and jealous of Cereus Veradis. He tried imagining what it would feel like if Max spoke about him the way he spoke about Veradis or tumbling into bed with the Antillan. The thoughts felt good at first, but they also brought a shiver down Uli's spine. He wanted Max's love, but he also wanted Max to see him as his brother in arms. He didn't want to be seen as a girl._

 _Uli went to bed cursing the world._

The outlaws that Max and his men had captured were bound up in metal chains and kept in the prisoners' tent for interrogation. So far, they have refused to answer any questions the interrogator had asked of them.

"Interesting," said the interrogator. The man was a veteran with lines on his face, and his short, dark hair was peppered with silver. "Men that young usually realize at this point that they are in way over their heads and just give up for a lighter sentence. A bandit group doesn't usually inspire this much loyalty in people."

"Send them back to Appia, then," said Max. "Maybe a few days in a cell will make them see sense."

The interrogator saluted and walked away. Max walked to the scout's tent, where Schultz was waiting for him.

"Any word from our scouts?" asked Max.

"No, Tribune," said Schultz. "There's a huge patch of land in the mountains that is completely covered in _croach_. We stopped sending our Knights Aeris over that land, because none that we have sent there have ever come back.

"Our men have had a few scuffles with the outlaws, sir," Schultz continued. "For the most part, they've left our men alone; we only really see them when we catch them trying to rob someone, but the almost always disappear as soon as our _legionares_ get involved."

Max nodded. "They would be stupid to face trained _legionares_ in a fair fight. Any crafters among them?"

"Sadly, it is impossible to tell what craftings the group has as a whole, but we've seen some woodcrafting, and maybe an earthcrafter or two, nothing impressive. I'd guess that our men have more in the way of crafting than they do."

"That doesn't mean anything," said Max. "His Royal Majesty came from a backwater country like this. If the Redhill Heights are anything like Calderon, then the locals will have a better handle on the furies here, regardless of raw power."

Schultz nodded. "We noticed the furies out here are unlike any you'd see in the cities. In addition to the vord, we've also had to deal with feral furies."

"Speaking of the locals," said Max. "Have any of the steadholders talked to us?"

"They seem hospitable enough, if a little cautious," said Schultz. "But none of the freeman can tell us anything about the bandits, which means that either they really don't know or…"

"Or they're helping them," said Max.

"There's more," said Schultz. "It seems Count Otho is very unpopular with the freemen. They cannot stand Senator Valerius, but every time one of them challenges him, the count would intimidate the contender into stepping down. There's been talk of beatings, stalking, even assaults and killings."

Max smiled savagely. "Now that's interesting. Tavi won't be happy to hear about that."

"Unfortunately, even he won't be able to do anything without proof," said Schultz.

"That's always the hard part," said Max. He clapped Schultz on the shoulder. "Good work. At least now we have something to work with."

Max pondered as he walked to the latrine. Between the bandits still at large, knights going missing, and now these rumors regarding the count, a lot of things were going on. Max walked into the latrine, the wooden door closing noisily behind him. He pulled his trousers down to relieve himself.

Suddenly there was a noise outside. Max cursed as he pulled up his trousers. He tried to open the door, but the door was stuck. Even when he used earthcrafted strength, the door was surprisingly resistant. Upon closer inspection, Max could see branch or root-like protrusions from the sides of the door drilling into the doorframe. With a roar, Max shattered the door and ran out of the latrine.

Max ran headfirst into a web-like net made of hemp rope. The net clung to him as if it had a mind of its own. A javelin struck him in the shoulder from behind with a loud crack. Max turned around and saw a flicker of an arm on top of the latrine before the arm turned invisible. Max conjured a ball of fire and launched it at the roof of the latrine. He saw a masked figure leap from the roof onto the wooden wall behind it. Max saw the figure stick to the wall before disappearing again. Max set fire to the net with his fury, the flames instantly consuming the rope without damaging him or his clothes. He tried to pull the javelin out his shoulder, but the haft simply snapped off, leaving the head buried uncomfortably in his shoulder.

Another javelin found its way to his knee. Since the javelins were made of wood, metalcrafting would be useless to dull the pain. Max cried out. He looked up and saw a flicker of the masked figure clinging to the wall with his feet and free hand like a spider. Max roared in fury and directed an intense fire blast to the wall; the woodcraftings the men used to build it would keep it resistant to fire.

Max turned to see what the commotion was about. He could see _legionares_ running to where an alarm had been raised.

Two wooden darts hit and embedded themselves in his wrists. Max turned and saw the masked outlaw peeking out over the wall. Max cursed and launched himself at his attacker. The outlaw threw a handful of rock salt at him, obliviating his wind fury but not in time to stop Max from making it over the wall. Max grabbed the outlaw, and both of them went falling down the other side of the wall. Max pinned him down easily and earthcrafted the dirt to bind the outlaw's wrists.

"Not man enough to show your face, you slive?" Max tore the bandit's mask off. What he saw made him pause.

When Max and Uli had been young lads in the legion, Uli had a reputation for being pretty for a boy. Even now, as a thirty-year-old man, Uli had a mildly androgynous face. He was of average height for a man, but well-muscled. His hair was the color of dark honey and cut into the style of the legions, and his eyes were a dark blue.

Uli's eyes shifted, and Max suddenly found himself in horrible pain in the places where he had been pierced by javelins and darts. The wood felt as if it were expanding inside him, and his wrists, knee, and shoulder stiffened. He was tossed into the air and found himself pinned to the wooden camp wall behind him. He was seeing white dots. Below him, Uli was freeing himself from the bindings, using the grass to cut away at the dirt.

Max tried to break free, but the way he was pinned to the wall by most of his joints made even the smallest movements agonizing. He was cut off from the earth, so he couldn't earthcraft his way out of it, and his wind furies were still smarting from the rock salt Uli had thrown at him. If only he could get a hold of his sword, he could metalcraft his way through it.

Using his own strength, which was considerable, Max cracked his wrist as he tore his hand away from the wall. It hurt like hell, but once he got his hand free, he immediately grabbed hold of the gladius on his belt, whipping it out and drawing upon the furies in his weapon to undo the hold Uli had on him only moments before Uli freed himself and stood back up.

Max charged at Uli with his gladius. Uli reached out to the tree next to him. A branch came down and tried to hit Max, but Max sliced through it. Uli grabbed hold of another branch that came down and used it to launch himself into the canopy of the woods. Uli swung from the branch into the next tree before disappearing into the leaves.

Max cursed and made a move to try to follow him, but he heard a cry come from the camp behind him. He saw a pillar of smoke rise to the sky. Seeing no choice, he ran back to help.


	5. Chapter 5

_14 years earlier_

 _A long line of targets was spread out over the open field as Uli's spear practiced with_ pila _. Javelin practice was Uli's favorite drill. Not even a bow and arrow felt as natural to him as launching a weapon with his bare hands, guiding Rachni to make a more accurate and impactful blow._

 _Next to him, Max was doing just as well as Uli was. The large Antillan brought a tremendous force to each throw. The target shook so hard it flew backwards feet on impact._

 _Uli froze as Rachni warned him of an incoming wooden projectile._

 _"Max, watch out!" Uli cried, causing Max to stop and turn to him. The next thing either of them knew, a_ pilum _penetrated Max in the side of his chest with a loud crack. The Antillan looked down at the pointed tip sticking out just to the left of his sternum, his grey eyes widening and his mouth opening in astonishment._

 _Uli vaguely heard the commotion as the other_ legionares _scrambled to see what was going on, their voices amorphous in the background. Centurion Paullus's voice rang clearly as he ordered everyone to step aside._

 _"Ulixius! Help me get him to the healer's tent. The rest of you are to stay in formation and not move until I get back." The centurion's order brought some semblance of familiarity and direction, and Uli latched onto that. Uli threw Max's left arm over his shoulder, and he and the centurion guided Max to the healer's tent. They handed Max off to a healer, who quickly got Max face down into a tub and filled it up to Max's chin as the Antillan waited there on his hands and knees._

 _"Will he be all right?" asked Uli._

 _The healer was a large, hairy Phrygian bear of a man named Foss. Foss dunked his hands into the water and concentrated on his watercrafting. "The tip of the_ pilum _chipped some of his rib as it passed through the lung," he calmly explained. "If it'd pierced 'im just a bit t'the right, it would've gone straight t'his heart."_

 _"Balls!" cried Max. Uli looked as the Antillan's face twisted into an expression of helplessness and rage. "Crows and bloody balls!" Max made a fist with one of his hands and slammed it into the side of his tub, denting it._

 _Foss swore. "We're gonna have t'get this_ pilum _outta 'im. The bloody tip is too bent t' take out from behind. Can either a' you woodcraft?"_

 _"I can," said Uli._

 _"Break off the haft at the tip," Foss commanded. "An' don't leave a single splinter in there. Wood's a bugger. Leave even a scrap an' it'll fester like nothin' else."_

 _Uli nodded and carefully but firmly grabbed the_ pilum _near where it stuck out of Max's back. There was some blood, but the weapon kept Max from bleeding out. Uli sent Rachni down the_ pilum's _haft. In his mind, he saw a small wooden spider scuttle down until it reached the metal tip, at which point it could go no further. Rachni worked the end of the_ pilum _like a web, weakening it while simultaneously tightening the wood so that nothing would splinter off._

 _"Ready," said Uli._

 _Foss took a hold of the_ pilum _. "On three," he said. Max grabbed the side of the metal tub. Uli guessed that his friend was using metalcrafting to stave off the pain._

 _Foss and Uli yanked the wooden haft out of Max. With that gone, Foss and Max were able to pull the bent metal tip out the front. With the_ pilum _gone, Foss shoved his hands in the water and got to work healing Max._

 _The tent flap opened, and Tribune Cyril entered. Uli and Centurion Paullus saluted him._

 _"What happened?" the tribune demanded._

 _"My spear was doing drills with the_ pila _today, sir," explained the centurion. "Antillar got hit."_

 _"Do you know who threw it?" asked Tribune Cyril_

 _"No, sir," responded Paullus. "We brought him to the healer right away. I have not had time to investigate yet. Ulixius was standing right next to him."_

 _Tribune Cyril turned to Uli. "Did you see anything?"_

 _Uli did his best to explain what happened from the moment his wood fury had warned him to when Max got hit._

 _The tribune frowned, his brows coming together in concentration. "So he was hit from behind."_

 _"That would be one hell of an accident," said Centurion Paullus, "a hard angle to hit for anyone else in his spear." While the centurion and the tribune had their attentions turned elsewhere, Uli spared Max a glance. Max's eyes were wide, his face pale. Foss had ripped off Max's tunic, and Uli got to see the crisscrossing hatches of scars on Max's back_

 _The tribune cursed and dismissed everyone except Max and Foss. Uli had no choice but to follow his centurion back to the cohort._

 _Uli found Max passed out drunk in the corner of the camp bordello. It was hardly the first time Uli had to pick his friend off his ass after a night of carousing. The only thing unusual was that Max was alone. Normally, Uli would find Max out with other soldiers playing cards…or with a girl. Uli ignored Max's protests to leave him alone and hauled the Antillan on his feet._

 _Uli dragged Max to the healer's tent and dunked him into the largest, coldest tub of water he could find. Water splashed everywhere. Max had so much pure watercrafting talent that Uli didn't need to rouse Foss to help speed up the sobering. Max groaned as he slowly came to in the tub._

 _"All right all right, I'm up." Max shoved Uli's arms out of the way as he got out of the tub, his eyes still bloodshot._

 _"You sure? Our spear has to run laps tomorrow, an' even you don't deserve to be sick for that," said Uli._

 _Max grunted and grabbed a towel. As he took off his tunic, Uli saw Max's scars once more. A circle of newly watercrafted skin the size of a baby's wrist stood out just left of center where Max had been pierced by that_ pilum _._

 _"Max?" asked Uli. "Are you all right?"_

 _"I'm fine."_

 _"You sure? I mean-"_

 _"I said I'm fine," Max snapped at him. Uli just watched soundlessly as Max took a seat on one of the stools. After a long, drawn-out silence, Max spoke again._

 _"I thought I'd be safe here."_

 _Uli pulled up another one and sat next to him as he waited for Max to elaborate._

 _"I mean," said Max. "I knew that it wouldn't last forever, but for a while I thought…" Max let out a sulfurous curse._

 _"What're you talking about?" asked Uli._

 _Max looked up at Uli. His eyes were very red, and Uli could see that it wasn't completely because Max was inebriated. Max wiped the tears from his eyes before they could fully form. "My stepmother has been trying to kill me since I came into my furies."_

 _Uli's eyes widened. "Crows."_

 _"I joined the Legion here to get away from her, Uli." At this point, Max was really starting to get upset. He was sweating buckets and his grey eyes looked like they were staring a thousand yards away. His hands were shaking. "But I'll never be safe…I'll never be safe…"_

 _"Max." Uli put his hand on Max's shoulder. Up until now, Uli had always thought that Max was invincible. Confident, loyal, powerful, always full of swagger, Uli had never seen Max look so frightened, so helpless._

 _"If you hadn't been there…"_

 _"But I am here, Max." Uli suddenly felt very, very small. He was only one very young man with no title and only a wood fury to speak of, certainly nothing compared to a High Lady like Max's stepmother, yet if there was anything he could do to take away his friend's pain, he would do it. "Whatever you need, I'm here."_

 _"Uli, what's your family like?"_

 _"Well, there's not much to say," said Uli. "For the longest time, it was just me 'n my granpa. My parents died of the Blight when I was jus' eight years old." Uli thought back to his parents' suffering in their sickbeds while his grandfather wore himself down trying to keep everything together, to the news he'd hear about his friends dying and losing loved ones, to spending every moment scared for himself and for the people he loved._

 _To how the count and the other Citizen types holed themselves up in Alesis or fled and left the holders to die, taking all the food and money for themselves._

 _Uli didn't mention any of that to Max. All that happened years ago. Uli understood that Max needed comfort now; that was why he had asked Uli about his family._

 _"I'm sorry," said Max._

 _"Yeah," said Uli. "My granpa's the greatest man I ever knew. Tougher'n a gargant leather boot, but a good man at heart. Even after losing his son and wife and pretty much everyone 'cept me, he just kept on goin'. He was both my mother and my father. At the farm, there's always lots to do, and we both did the ploughin', and the plantin', and the repairs, and the sewin', and the cookin', and we did it together because we were family. On Wintersend, long past when the animals were locked up for the winter, we'd hunker up by the fire, and grandpa'd make a stew out of whatever we harvested that year. It just felt wonderful to know that, no matter how sad I got over ma and pa's death or how lost I felt, he was always there."_

 _And now that was gone._

 _"That must be nice," said Max. "Do you still keep contact with him?"_

 _"He died right before I left for the Legions," Uli explained. "Healers say it was a heart failure. One mornin' I just found him in his bed, dead."_

 _"Oh, I'm really sorry, Uli," said Max._

 _"'S fine," Uli said quietly._

 _"So why are you here? Who's watching the farm?"_

 _"Well first off, I need to t'serve my term like everyone else," said Uli. "Second, the count took the farm after m'grandpa died."_

 _"Well, you're just a ball of sunshine are you?"_

 _"Sorry," said Uli._

 _"How was that possible? As the oldest_ legitimate _male heir, the land should have been yours." Uli noticed a bitterness in the way Max had said 'legitimate'. Even before he learned that Max's stepmother tried to murder him, Uli had always suspected that being a bastard had affected Max more than he let on._

 _"I know," Uli said dryly. "I joined the Legion so maybe I could become a Citizen an' get the farm back."_

 _"He loved you," Max said. "Your grandfather, I mean."_

 _"Yeah," said Uli._

 _"That must have been nice," said Max._

 _"What about you?" asked Uli. "Don't you have other family?"_

 _Max snorted. "My father is up on the Shieldwall for about nine months every year, and when he was in Antillus, he only had time for me maybe for a few hours for a few days. He never had time for Wintersend stew or helping me with anything I was going through. My half-brother wasn't as bad as my stepmother. He'd just follow me around, but he was also my father's 'real' son. When his mother thought I was doing anything to hurt or bother him in any way, she'd have me whipped." Max reached up and scratched himself below the back of his neck, where the top of his scars would be._

 _Uli didn't know what to say. To him, it was completely unthinkable. His whole life, his grandfather had taught him that family was the most important part of his life._

 _They walked back to their tent. Nonus and Bortus snored loudly. Garius…Placidus Garius…was just as still and stony asleep as he was awake. The young lord barely moved at all while he slept soundly._

 _Max fell into his bed while Uli climbed into the top bunk bed above him. Uli's mind went to Max's predicament. Neglected by his father. Beaten and threatened by his stepmother. Simply because Max had been born on the wrong side of a marriage contract. It just wasn't fair. Nobles were strange creatures, and, because they had so much power, they could get away with whatever they wanted, even attempted murder. Uli wanted so badly to be able to do something, anything to help Max, but he knew that there was nothing he could do. When nobles got involved, there was never anything he could do._

"Crows," said the healer as he had Max lie facedown on a table. They needed him perfectly still as a woodcrafter slowly and painfully extracted the wood from his body, so they couldn't put him in a tub just yet. "This is absolutely _brutal_. With metal, you can sometimes leave a bit of it inside the body with no ill effects, but wood…plus, you can't metalcraft. I do not envy you, sir."

Max bit down on the leather strip they gave him. After Uli ran away, Max ran back to see one of the tents burning. The camp had been attacked by outlaws, and the slives burned a tent to cover their retreat. Max and the other watercrafters had been able to put out the fire, but not before the outlaws had gotten what they wanted. By the time everything had calmed down, Max and his men had realized that the captives were missing.

"The _pila_ that these outlaws used were unusual," the healer continued. "Instead of a metal tip, these javelins were wood all the way through, and it looks like the were designed, probably woodcrafted, to shatter on impact. Half of the ones thrown at our men broke off at the shaft and left splinters everywhere."

A scream was heard from one of the other men in the healer's tent. Max wondered how useful these crafted _pila_ would be on the battlefield. A common Aleran practice was to prioritize the least wounded while the battle was raging so that more soldiers could get back to the fight. Getting hit with one of those _pila_ would make a quick healing almost impossible if the weapon exploded inside the target's body.

And at least one of those outlaws used to serve in the Legion. Max had only seen Ulixius once before since Max had left the Legion for the Academy. It had been right after the vord war had ended. Uli had been in Calderon with all the other surviving Alerans. Max had found him, and the two of them sat down to catch up. Max had seen soldiers break down after service, but Uli had looked _haunted_. Uli had bags under his eyes, and he couldn't bring himself to talk about what he had gone through during the vord war and Kalare's rebellion. Still, to turn to banditry…

The healer pulled out another wooden shard from his shoulder. That was why Uli attacked him: he had wanted to keep Max away from the fight so that the other bandits could rescue the captives. Uli knew that the other outlaws had no chance against the son of a High Lord, so the crazy bastard had engaged Max by himself: just him and his little wood fury.

A shard cracked and slipped from the healer's tweezers as he tried to pull it out.

"Fuck it," said Max. He called on his own wood fury to force the wood out of his body, sending it flying out of his shoulders, wrists, and legs. The healer cried out in surprised. He tried to help Max off the table, but the Antillan brushed him off before standing up and plonking himself down in the nearest bath for healing.

Max's next step brought him back to Alesis. Ehren had been gracious enough to lend Max one of his most promising students, a young Parcian woman with red-gold hair and tan skin named Renata. Max and Renata snuck into the city disguised as moderately wealthy freeholders looking see if the count had any land he was willing to sell. If Max's memory served, Uli's grandfather had a farm in the area, and Uli had wanted to get it back. If Max could find that farm, maybe he could find Uli.

Max had a sharp mind for tactics and troop movements, and he was smarter than most people gave him credit for, but bookkeeping and bureaucracy were things he was very happy to leave to Ehren, Tavi, or even Crassus, hence why Renata was with him now. The young Cursor displayed all the signs of a student on a first mission: she gripped the ledger too tightly, and she insisted on staying in-character even on the ride to the city. Renata had also been really excited to meet him, her voice filled with both excitement over her first mission and worry over failing.

"There must be something really interesting on that ledger," Max said as he and Renata walked to the count's estate. She had been hunched over the book with her eyes focused on the prop.

Renata immediately snapped up. "Oh, no sir, I'm just thinking about the mission."

Max smiled at her. "You'll be fine. We're just going in to get documents, after all."

Renata nodded and looked ahead. Max thought back to when he, Tavi, Ehren, and Gaelle had been training. When Max had been on his first mission, the stakes had been much, much higher, and failure would have led to a devastating civil war. Sometimes it was hard for Max to believe that he didn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore. He was glad that Renata would get introduced to Cursor work through a relatively small mission.

"Your hands are too soft," said Renata.

Max looked at her. "Excuse me?"

"Your disguise," she continued. "You're supposed to be a freeholder. Your hands look more like a warrior's hands than a farmer's. The skin should be more cracked."

Max had watercrafted himself to look like a Parcian freeholder. He modeled his disguise after Tavi's uncle Bernard, except with a light red hair and darker skin. He didn't really spend a lot of time looking at people's hands, though. He made the adjustment to his disguise. "Better?" he asked.

Renata nodded.

The two of them arrived at the count's manor. There were flowers everywhere. The smell was overwhelming. Max had forgotten that the Midsummer festival was still going on. The fact that Count Otho was able to keep his home decorated with this many fresh flowers was either a wonder of woodcrafting or a wonder of colossal waste.

The count's steward was a tall older man. He was bald at the top, and his remaining white hair was tied back.

"Welcome," the steward led Max and Renata to his office and shut the door. He had a large desk in the center, where books and sheets of paper were stacked neatly on the sides. The walls were lined with shelves of books and scrolls. It smelled plain and musty in there, which was a relief from the floral inferno outside.

The steward sat down behind the desk. Max and Renata took seats on the bench opposite of him.

"We won't take much of your time," said Max. "Before the vord wars, I owned a Steadhold in Parcia. My sister and I managed to save enough of our possessions to start over."

The steward waved a hand in front of his face. Two windcrafted disks spun into shape in front of his eyes as he read over a large ledger in front of him. "We do have some properties available," he said. "Unfortunately, it seems that you have come at somewhat of a bad time. There is still a lot of vord everywhere, and the count has not yet accounted for all his land. But I'm sure that will clear up soon."

"That's all right," said Max. "Could you show us what we can work with?"

The steward stood up to get a book from one of the shelves. As he went through them, Max could once again smell the floral decorations from the hallway. From the corner of his eye, he could see that the door had been opened and was very slightly ajar. He reached out with his furies and detected someone using woodcrafting on the other side of the door.

Max continued with the meeting, mostly letting Renata stay on point with questions. He wanted to appear as normal as possible. He briefly considered putting up an aircrafted bubble around him, Renata, and the steward so that the eavesdropper could not hear them, but that would make the steward and the listener suspicious.

Towards the end, Max started deliberately coughing. He made his watercrafted disguise go red and puffy around the eyes.

"Are you all right?" asked the steward.

"I think so." Max slipped in another cough. "It's the flowers. I think I might be allergic."

"Oh dear," said the steward. "I never quite liked this holiday myself."

"I should probably get some air," said Max, standing up. "My sister can finish up."

Renata shot him a look of dismay but did not question him as he quickly walked out of the office. He closed the door behind him. He was not surprised not to see anyone there. There were so many damn flowers that a woodcrafter could easily blend themselves into the background.

Max rounded a corner before using his own woodcrafting to turn invisible. When he looked back at the door to the steward's office, it had once again been slightly opened. Max reached out with his wood fury. He easily overwhelmed the other person's woodcrafting and their disguise briefly fell. Max caught a glimpse of Epponina before she ran away.

When Max and Renata got back to camp, Renata immediately went to work studying the list of properties. It only took her a day to find it.

She lay the document out over the map of Redhill Heights. Schultz was with them.

"Right there," she pointed to a remote spot on the map.

"That is deep within vord territory," said Schultz. "And where we lost our men."

"What does the document say?" asked Max.

Renata picked it up and read it. "I didn't have a whole lot to go on. The freemen don't usually have surnames, but this document is the only one that listed your friend's name as one of the people who had previously owned the land. It's very strange, though. It says that Ulixius the last person to own this farm before the count seized it. It says here that Ulixius died of heart failure fifteen years ago."

"It's not that strange," said Max. "It ties perfectly with when and how Uli's grandfather died. Uli was probably named after his grandfather."

Renata kept reading. "The document also says that 'in absence of a male heir, the property is now rightfully owned by Count Otho Fabius of Redhill Heights.'"

"Also consistent with what happened to Uli," said Max.

"There's more," said Renata. "Not only is it deep in vord territory, but it is one of the places the vord queen used to keep Alerans who surrendered to them. There are reports of people still living there guarded by vord."

"What now, sir?" asked Schultz.

"It seems rather obvious, doesn't it?" said Max. "We're taking some men into vord territory. We need to get to that farm."


	6. Chapter 6

_13 years earlier_

 _"Hey, Uli!" Max called out as Uli was leaving the canteen after dinnertime. "Come with me."_

 _"Where're we goin'?" asked Uli._

 _"Come on before it gets dark." Max grabbed Uli by the elbow and dragged him away from camp. They reached the forest just as twilight started to fall over the tree line._

 _"What're we doin', Max?" asked Uli._

 _Max let out a deep breath. "I need your help with something. I've been training with Tribune Cyril and the Knights Aeris to learn how to fly. It's been…uh…kind of a work in progress."_

 _"Really?" asked Uli. He always thought that people of Max's age and furycrafting talent would have already learned how to fly. "But I thought…with your wind furies…"_

 _"There's nothing wrong with my furies," Max rebuffed. "Not exactly. I can get up just fine. It's just landing…and steering…and staying in the air."_

 _"What do you want_ me _to do?" asked Uli._

 _Max pointed to the treeline. "I'm going to try to fly over the forest. If I fall, I'll need you to catch me in the trees. I'll be focusing all my attention on flying so I can't do much else."_

 _"Why me?" Uli looked out into the forest. There were a lot of trees. What if he wasn't strong or fast enough to catch Max on time. Surely Garius would do a better job._

 _"Because I plan on making this a regular practice and you're the only person I trust with this," said Max. "Will you catch me when I fall?"_

 _'Always,' thought Uli. Instead, he looked into Max's grey eyes and said, "Yeah, I will."_

 _They walked up a hill so that Uli could get a better sight. Max exhaled. "Here it goes," he said before taking off into the air with a loud_ wsh _._

 _Uli watched in awe as his friend soared over the trees. Max went about five stories into the air before his flight turned into an arc that sent him down into the forest. Uli immediately sent Rachni out to bring the trees together to catch him. It was so much wood to move, and it was so far away from him that Uli had to strain to make sure he caught Max as he fell. Uli felt it when Max hit the large web of branches Rachni made, like a large bundle of logs suddenly being dropped into his arms. Uli held Max for a few moments before the Antillan's weight broke the branches, and Max crashed through the trees._

 _Uli ran into the forest, using Rachni to guide him to where Max fell. Crashing through a bunch of trees looked just as bad for Max as Uli supposed he should have expected. Max was covered in cuts and bruises, and his back had scraped really badly. When Uli got there, Max was spitting out leaves._

 _"Stupid forest," said Max. "Well at least I didn't break any bones this time."_

 _"Crows, Max, you alright?" asked Uli, holding a hand to pull Max up._

 _"Yeah." Max grabbed Uli's hand. He winced as he suddenly stood up._

 _"Hey, you'll get it. I'm sure of it," said Uli._

 _Max winced again. "I don't know about that," he said bitterly. "It's been like this since the second time my stepmother tried to kill me. A jar of rock salt fell out of a tower window near where I was having flying lessons. My fury got damaged and I fell."_

 _Max clenched his hands into fists. "I don't know if it's because the attack did permanent damage to my fury or…" He looked away from Uli, seething. "When I'm up there, I can't stop thinking that I'm going to fall again."_

 _For a while, Uli didn't know what to say. What could he say? "I won't let you fall," he said weakly._

 _For a moment, Uli could see the beginnings of a smile tugging at the corners of Max's mouth. Max quickly turned away and stretched out his arms. "I'll get it eventually," he said. He turned back to Uli. "Let's go back to camp."_

 _"Sure," said Uli._

 _They were about halfway out of the forest when Max suddenly said, "You know, maybe a girl would do you some good."_

 _"'Scuse me?" asked Uli. "Where'n the crows did_ that _come from?"_

 _"I was just thinking about getting some comfort after my latest failure at flying, then I thought maybe you'd like to join me."_

 _"Um no thanks." Uli felt heat flood into his face, and he was grateful that it was getting dark outside._

 _"Come on," said Max. "It's not healthy for you to be this repressed."_

 _"I just don't like girls that way," Uli mumbled._

 _"That's fine," said Max, "they have some male dancers that are perfectly serviceable."_

 _"Max, no," said Uli, though he_ had _a chance to look at some of the male doxies at camp, and they were rather good-looking and just as skilled at earthcrafting as their female counterparts. It was just that Uli could never really bring himself to go in and do anything about his urges._

 _"Fine, if you won't let me buy you a boy, then at least let's take a bath together," said Max._

 _"What now?" Uli knew about public baths in cities where people of the same gender could walk in and bathe together and that Max probably didn't mean anything by it, but it still didn't make him feel any less self-conscious. Uli had a bit of an obsession with privacy, something that Max liked to tease him about quite often. Uli never bathed with the other men; when he had to go to the healer's, he would make sure to go alone when he could; and when he got dressed in the tent, he would use Rachni to conceal him against one of the wooden poles of his bed._

 _"It's just a bath," said Max. "I know you country types don't have public baths, but it doesn't mean anything to a lot of the men here."_

 _Uli was so tempted to take Max up on his offer. The thought of being alone with a naked Max sent shivers down Uli's spine. He had often fantasized about similar situations, of running his nails down Max's scar-marked back as they lay themselves bare under the sheets._

 _But the thought of actually having to get naked in front of Max put an end to his musings. A sort of stage fright gripped him and he almost panicked._

 _"I'm afraid I'm gonna have t'pass." It was a miracle that Uli was able to form a coherent sentence._

 _Max snorted. "Suit yourself."_

 _The two of them walked back to camp. As they passed rows of tents, they heard Bortus and Nonus laughing._

 _"So, I was walking by the river, chatting up some of the laundry girls, when I notice that there is blood in one of the baskets," said Bortus._

 _"Go on," Nonus said excitedly, gesticulating at Bortus to continue._

 _Bortus sniggered before continuing. "Normally, I wouldn't think twice about it. We are in a war camp after all, but I had a sneaking suspicion, and lo and behold." He held up a long strip of wrappings about a handspan wide. It was common for women of age to disguise themselves as men and join the Legion. For most women, it was the only way to gain Citizenship or any other form of status._

 _Nonus's eye widened. His mouth turned in a wide, ugly smile. "You mean…"_

 _Bortus returned the smile with his own. "Looks like a lady's joined this Legion." His smile turned dark and ugly. "Maybe we should go find out who it is and give her a Legion's welcome."_

 _Bortus and Nonus started laughing again. Uli could feel the rage and humiliation boiling up inside him. His teeth clenched even has he turned his face towards the ground._

 _With a speed that Uli could never match, Max ran up to Nonus and Bortus and punched Bortus with enough force to send him sprawling to the ground. Nonus barely had time to try to get a punch in before Max turned around and hit him too._

 _"I'm sorry to bother you,_ gentlemen _," said Max, cracking his knuckles. "I'm pretty sure I did not just hear you talk about a fellow_ legionare _like that."_

 _Bortus spat. Uli could see some blood and a tooth come out of his mouth. "What does it matter to you, Antillar? You've been sticking it to half the girls in camp."_

 _Max put his booted foot to Bortus's chest and crushed him into the dirt. "Whoever she is, she's risking her life for Alera and deserves our respect. And if I ever catch you making trouble for her or any other woman in the camp, you'll be losing a lot more than teeth."_

 _Max took his foot off Bortus. The two louts picked themselves up from the ground and ran away, nursing their injured mouths. Uli ran up to Max._

 _"That was amazin'," said Uli._

 _"Those slives had it coming," said Max. He looked down at the binding Bortus had left behind. "Um, I guess we shouldn't leave it here."_

 _"I'll take care of it," said Uli. He picked it up. "You go enjoy your girl."_

 _Max winked at him and walked away._

Max was in a grouchy mood as he led his cohort through the vord-infested woods. They couldn't risk flying, as there were still missing Knights Aeris and didn't want to end up the same way. The _croach_ wasn't nearly as pervasive here as it was during the vord war, but it was enough that his group had to slow down considerably to either avoid it or cut a path through it in a way that didn't break the _croach_ too quickly or too messily and bring the Seekers down on them.

"A _taurga_ might be able to eat its way through the stuff," Max muttered irritably. He, Schutlz, and Renata were at the front. A few scouts were sent up ahead to path find.

Schultz cracked a smile. "You miss your old friend, Steaks, Tribune?"

Max scoffed. "Of course, I don't miss him, you idiot. I just think it's completely unfair that that ornery sack of fleas is back in Appia being tended to hand and foot and studding around with well-bred _taurga_ females while I'm out here in the back end of nowhere working my balls off in this heat."

Schutlz just chuckled and shook his head.

Max exhaled bitterly through his nostrils.

Max had left Renata back at camp. Ehren would have killed him if he didn't bring her back in one piece.

 _"What do you think about the servant who was spying on us?" Max had asked Renata before he had left._

 _"Well," said Renata. "She works for the duke, so she could be spying for him, which means that either the duke really wants to keep watch on every land sale his estate makes, or he somehow knew who we were."_

 _Renata paused. "But it would also be very strange for the duke to send anyone to listen in. If he was really interested in what was going on in that meeting, he could get whatever information he needed from his steward, who was already in the room and most likely had records of what transaction took place. Placing someone else at the door would only risk exposing himself."_

 _Max smiled. "Nice deduction."_

 _"There are three factions in play," Renata continued, "us, Count Otho, and the outlaws. Obviously, she isn't one of ours, so if she isn't spying for the duke, then it must mean…she couldn't be with the outlaws, could she?"_

 _"It's not impossible," said Max._

"But if the outlaws could put a spy in Alesis…" Renata's eyes widened. "Crows, they probably know you're coming!"

"That is also possible," said Max.

Renata cringed. "But you're going in anyway."

 _"Now you're getting the hang of things," said Max. "In all seriousness, though, there was no way to hide a sizeable force of_ legionares _coming through the forest, at least not one large enough to attack an organized group of bandits; they simply know the area far better than we do, and at least one of them is very familiar with Legion tactics. The best we can do is scout the area and form a plan of attack."_

 _"Speaking of which," said Max. "What is your take on Ulixius?"_

 _"From what you told me, Ulixius fits the profile perfectly: a lifetime of hardship, anger over having his home taken from him, years fighting on the Shieldwall, Kalare's Rebellion, and the vord war (all of which you've said had an impact on him). It seems he had the perfect blend of motivation and anger to take up arms against Count Otho."_

 _Max kept a still expression. What she had said was so bloody obvious, and yet, he couldn't help but wonder if there had been anything he could have done to prevent Uli from going down that road. Uli had been one of the only people he had opened up to before meeting Tavi._

 _The worst part was that none of it mattered. He had a duty to apprehend these bandits, and he would do so, regardless of his feelings._

Suddenly, a snapping sound was heard, followed by one of his men screaming. Max only had enough time to turn his head and see that one of the men behind him had a metal, tooth-like trap clamped around his leg. Right after that happened, traps started going off every which way. Left and right, metal clamps, and wooden spikes shot up from the ground, causing chaos among the ranks.

The traps did more than just damage to the _legionares_. They also broke the _croach_ beneath the cohort's feet. A slimy, translucent pus seeped out of the damaged areas. Soon the vord were upon them. Max shouted at his men to keep formation.

The vord poured in on them, starting from the spider-like Keepers to the large mantis-like monsters with blades on their arms. Max's men met them with sword and shield and fury.

With their queen dead, the vord were a mindless wave, and once the _legionares_ regained formation, they were able to kill enough vord that the remaining monsters ran away.

"We can't stay for long, sir," said Schultz. "More might come back."

"Retreat the way we came," ordered Max. "We don't want to walk into any more traps."

Schultz shouted at the men to go back. The _legionares_ picked up their wounded and dying and carried them with practiced ease.

Three men died, twenty were lightly injured, and thirteen were gravely injured, rather light for a skirmish that size. Still, the deaths weighed heavily on Max, as they always do. Also, the wooden projectiles seemed to have been made of the same craftings that Uli's _pila_ had been made of. Many of them had shattered on impact, leaving nasty shard of wood in _legionare_ flesh, making even the "lightly" injured soldiers a nightmare for the healers as they had to pull every last splinter out of their patients' flesh. When they set out again, they had to move even more slowly than before. Now that they knew that there were traps set in the woods, Max and Schultz deployed wood and metal crafters at the front to make sure that they wouldn't be caught off-guard again.

The entire forest after that point was a warzone. As the cohort got closer to Uli's farm, the land was interspaced with burned patches of land, discarded weapons, vord and animal carcasses, and broken wagons. They passed by the remnants of Steadholds that had been sacked and overrun during the vord wars (some of Max's men found and destroyed a few nests), but a few showed signs of a more recent conflict. The trails on the ground looked fresh, and the houses had been knocked or burned down, something the vord rarely did to Steadholds they took.

At one point, they stopped on a large, burned-out clearing. The grass and _croach_ had been scorched right off, the trees destroyed, and broken weapons were scattered over the ground.

"Sir, you need to see this," said a lanky, pockmarked young scout.

Max dismounted his horse and followed the scout to the center of the scorched land. On the ground were the shattered remains of many glass spheres the size of Max's fist. Max picked one up. It had long since cooled, but there was no doubt as to what it was.

"Fire spheres," said Max. "Whoever did this used a Mule."

The question was who. Of course, Uli had been in Calderon when the Alerans made their final stand. He would have seen the destructive power of those machines. It had been a large turning point in Aleran history; now the freemen had a real fighting chance against awe-inspiring forces that the Citizens.

Max just never thought that he would be on the receiving end of that hypothetical freemen revolt.

"We keep marching," said Max. "Prepare for a fight."

Max's men marched the last stretch. What Max saw shocked him. Even with the possibility of the outlaws having a Mule, he had been expecting a typical bandit stronghold: a small and only somewhat organized force. Instead, he saw a stronghold. A large, wooden wall with sharp, wooden pikes at the base encircled the rather large property. Between Max's cohort and those walls was a series of trenches with spikes at the bottom as well as the same spike traps that littered the forest. His scouts have reported that they circulated guards in accordance with Legion practices. Painted vord scurried around and over the dangers, diligently protecting the place.

Max also didn't expect the large white flag that hung over the wall.


	7. Chapter 7

_11 years earlier_

 _"You've been promoted?" asked Max, a wide smile on his large face._

 _Uli held the letter in his hands. "Me? A Knight Flora. Who'd thunk it?"_

 _Max lightly punched Uli in the shoulder. "We both know that you can run circles around anyone here with your wood work."_

 _Max was only mildly exaggerating. Uli didn't know what had happened. Before he had joined the Legion, Rachni was not powerful at all. The little fury could barely help him fertilize the fields or hold a piece of fencing for long enough for Uli to repair it, and Rachni's manifestation, when it could manage one at all, was a tiny little spider that only fit in the palm of Uli's hand. Now, Rachni was helping him take down Icemen, sense incoming arrows and_ pila _from yards away, and even move trees. Crows, the last time Uli saw Rachni manifest, it was just a bit bigger than his torso. Uli didn't know whether it was because Rachni was getting stronger with Legion practice or if his grandpa had somehow given Uli his fury before he passed away. Regardless, it seems that Legion command had taken noticed._

 _"I don't know 'bout this," said Uli. "I mean a knighthood, that's big. I don't even know any manners or politics and stuff."_

 _Max scoffed. "You're not going to politely ask your enemies to run into your arrows, and if you do actually have to talk to someone, just do what I do: make it up as you go."_

 _Uli didn't tell Max that it only worked out for him because his father was a powerful man in every sense of the word. Though Uli knew that some aspects of Max's life were a living nightmare, he had many privileges that Uli would never get to enjoy. Max could run his mouth at every High Lord in the realm and their mothers until his face turned blue and not suffer a lick for it. If Uli showed a tenth of that disrespect, it could mean his death._

 _Of course, talking to Max about it would be uncomfortable._

 _"Anyway," said Max. "This calls for a celebration. Let's go drinking!"_

 _The two young men made their way to one of the tents that served as a bar. They weren't the only ones; many other_ legionares _were out celebrating the end of their turn. Some were laughing it up with the new friends they had made. Some came to wash away the pain and horrors they have seen. Regardless, each and every one of those men looked much older than when they had started._

 _"So d'you think you're gonna go another term?" asked Uli._

 _"Probably," said Max. "It's not set in stone, but it's not like I have anywhere else to go. What about you? Are you going to accept that promotion?"_

 _"I dunno," said Uli. "I always thought I'd go back to the farm after my second term, but becoming a Knight. That is really sumthin'."_

 _Max put a hand on Uli's shoulder and squeezed. Uli felt the heat rush to his face and took a swig of his beer to hide his blush._

 _"Either way," said Uli, putting his mug down. "This might be the last time we're in the Legion together. Any regrets?"_

 _This time, it was Max's turn to take a drink. "I guess my only regret was that I never had a chance with you."_

 _If Uli had been drinking in that moment, he would have coughed out his beer. "What?"_

 _"Don't tell me you didn't notice," said Max. Despite the rather intimate and slightly scandalous confession, Max was grinning. "I've probably propositioned you about seventeen times these past two years."_

 _Had he? Uli supposed the bath comment might have been a little suggestive, but Uli had figured that bathing with other people was just what city folk did. Uli had never been very good at reading other people, even when they were being obvious with their feelings. Back on the farm, his grandpa always said to him that he had a good head on his shoulders, even if it wasn't screwed on the same as everyone else._

 _"Really?" asked Uli, his voice almost dipping into a whisper._

 _Uli felt his ears pop. Max must have put up a windcrafting bubble around them._

 _"Why not?" asked Max. "You are rather pretty." Max laughed when Uli glared at him. "I'm joking. I…respect you, Uli. I don't know, ever since the night after I almost got stabbed in the heart with a_ pilum _, then later when I found out that you like men…crows, I just feel comfortable with you, okay?"_

 _Uli suddenly became very aware that Max's hand was still on his shoulder. Max still had the air bubble up. Uli called to Rachni to make them invisible against the wooden table and placed a hand on Max's knee._

 _Max chuckled softly, moving his hand down to Uli's back. "I'm guessing it's not too late, then?"_

 _Uli just scoffed in response. Max leaned forward and kissed Uli on the lips. Uli answered the kiss as best he could, moving his lips in tandem with Max's._

 _Max pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. The Antillan tasted like fine wine and Legion rations. Having Max's tongue in his mouth felt strange, but Uli wasn't going to back down. Max moaned in Uli's mouth as Uli squeezed his leg._

 _They pulled away._

 _"Let's go somewhere more private." Max looked at Uli through half-lidded eyes. "I know where we can get a tent together."_

 _Uli froze, though he did his best not to let it show. This was all he ever wanted, but it also meant that he would be letting Max see him naked. He wasn't sure if he wanted that. He wasn't sure…_

 _"Lead the way," said Uli._

 _Max kissed him once more, and the two of them made their way out of the tent._

 _As they walked into the night, Uli's heart raced. He never imagined that this night would come. He had wanted this for a long time. Yet, he was sweating buckets. He and Max were careful not to walk too closely to one another, and they were both completely silent as Max led Uli to where the prostitutes' tents were._

 _Uli stopped. "Um, Max…"_

 _Max stopped and turned to him. "What's wrong, Uli?"_

 _"I, um..." Suddenly Rachni was warning him of an incoming arrow. Uli tried to call on his fury to redirect its path, but the attacker must have been using their own wood fury. Uli met with too much resistance. When the arrow came, it shot Max in the shoulder instead of the head._

 _Max cried out and drew his sword. Suddenly, three figures emerged from the shadows. Max was a blur as he took on two of the attackers, using metal and wind craftings to speed the blow. Uli had just enough time to take out his_ pilum _and start deflecting the other attacker's sword strikes. It was only through Rachni that the wooden shaft of his weapon withstood the attacks from the sword._

 _Rachni warned him of another incoming arrow. Max was still engaged with the other two. Uli only had the briefest of moments. He reached out and deflected the arrow just as his opponent sliced into his side._

 _Blood poured out. Every event that happened next blurred into one another. Uli heard Max cry out for him, but it sounded muted and distorted, as if coming from far away. Before he knew it, Max's entire body was surrounded by a large halo of fire. The Antillan, now with an arrow in his shoulder and another in his neck unleashed an inferno all around him. Uli could feel the intense heat as the flames soared above his head. He hadn't realized that he had fallen to the ground. Uli also felt fear, deep, primal, unimaginable fear as Max's firecrafting washed over him and the assassins._

 _The next thing Uli knew, he was in a tub. A pair of soft hands were in the water with him._

 _"Is he going to be all right?" Max asked frantically._

 _"Not with you distractin' us!" yelled Foss. "Now let's get you t'yer own tub!"_

 _Uli woke up with a start, gasping for air._

 _"Take it easy," said a feminine voice._

 _Uli paid the healer no mind and scrambled out of the tub. He fell over the lip and stumbled onto the ground. To his horror, he was completely naked. He quickly tried to cover his unbound breasts with his arms._

 _"Here," the healer handed him a large roll of bandages. Uli looked into the face of the young-looking woman he had bribed to keep his secret. Though her face looked young, her hair was heavily lined with white. Uli snatched the bandages out of her hands and began to frantically bind his breasts._

 _"Antillar Maximus was here," said Uli._

 _"He didn't see anything," said the healer. "He tried to come see you again after we were done with his injuries, but Foss shooed him away."_

 _Uli simply grunted in response. The healer gave him another set of bandages. "Not all the blood in your tub came from your wounds," she explained. Uli merely blushed before grabbing the bandages and getting to work on the other half of his disguise._

 _Once Uli got changed into clean clothes, he walked briskly back to his tent. Since he had been recovering, many of the_ legionaires _had already packed for their trip home. He wanted to see Max, make sure he was all right._

 _Nonus's and Bortus's things were untouched. Garius and his possessions were nowhere to be found, and neither were Max and his things._

 _"Where's Max?" asked Uli._

 _"How the bloody crows should we know?" said Bortus, picking wax out of his ear._

 _Uli's heart sunk. He was surprised that Max would just leave without saying goodbye to him, especially after what happened that night. To be honest, he felt a little lost. He had no idea if he and Max would ever see each other again._

 _Uli dejectedly walked over to his bed and started putting things away. He still had a choice to make: go back to the farm or accept the promotion. Either way, he would not be coming back to this tent._

 _He found a note in his knapsack._

 _Uli,_

 _My father heard about what happened and pulled me out of the Legion. He's enrolled me into the Academy in Alera Imperia. I'm not sure how much safer it will be there than here, but it seems to make my father feel better. Either that, or he wants me as much out of the way as possible._

 _I'm really, really sorry for what happened. I should have known that it was only a matter of time before_ she _started hurting other people to get to me, and I really regret that it was you._

 _I think, in light of all that, it wouldn't be a good idea to continue where we left off. I'm sure you understand why. I wish that our circumstances had been different, but they aren't. Again, I'm sorry._

 _You've been a great friend to me. I don't know what I would have done without you. Probably roast on a pyre after getting shot in the heart with a_ pilum _. So, thanks for that. Who knows? Maybe if I can hang on for long enough, we can see each other again._

 _\- Max_

Max stood face-to-face with Uli outside the bandit fortress. Uli's fair face was a stone mask set in a noticeable scowl. They were both accompanied by retainers as they met to negotiate Uli's surrender, Max with his heavily-armored _legionares_ and Uli with peasant outlaws who could afford no more than heavily-padded cloth armor but were no less determined or well-behaved than Max's own soldiers. Max was rather impressed with the discipline that Uli's men were showing. Max figured that he shouldn't be surprised, as they were being led and trained by a Knight Flora.

'Former Knight Flora,' Max thought bitterly. There was no way that Uli was going to keep his title after taking up banditry. Max had to remind himself to stay focused and not dwell on that fact that it was his friend who had fallen so far.

Max could also see the mule stationed at the gates. The impressive machine was loaded with dozens of fire spheres, ready to rain fire on his men. Painted vord scuttled up and down the fortress walls.

"Ulixius," Max greeted.

"Let's cut the gargant drek," said Uli. "Count Otho Fabius has committed many injustices against the people of Redhill Heights. When the war with the vord ended, he has appropriated land from people who have fled their homes; to make up for lost slaves, he has forced former steadholders into a form of servitude just to stay on their lands; he has withheld relief efforts to maintain himself and his buddies in Alesis; he has intimidated, harassed, and assassinated Senator Valerius's political opponents to keep power in the Senate; he has imposed heavy restrictions on the freemen to prevent them from voting or participating in the governing of this area; when I organized the freeholders to protect themselves from the count's thugs, they resorted to raiding villages to discourage people from joining our cause; the situation escalated until we were practically revolting against the count; before that, the count has allowed countless freemen to die from the Blight.

"Here are my terms." Uli's speech might have become more refined since Max had first met him, but Max could still hear a drawl under all that. "First, I want the count to be arrested and thrown from power. Second, you can do what you like with me, but the people who followed me are to be pardoned. Third, I want my grandfather's farm officially returned to me."

"Why didn't you send word to Appia?" asked Max. "Crows, why didn't you contact me earlier? You obviously knew where I was when you attacked my camp."

"I didn't trust you or the First Lord," said Uli. "I didn't want to risk you or the First Lord taking the count's word over mine and making things worse for the people here."

"Tav-the new First Lord doesn't care whether someone's a noble or a freeman," Max protested. "He would have heard you out."

Uli remained unmoved. "Really, now?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes, really," said Max. "The world has changed Uli. Nobles don't get to just do what they want anymore. The Realm will look into this."

"And what'll come of _that_?" asked Uli. "There's some really powerful people who liked things just fine the way they were. Will that bastard, Otho be able to squirm his way out of a punishment? Will other nobles, including the First Lord, be inclined to help the peasants."

In the blink of an eye, Max got up in Uli's face, anger boiling up inside him. The men on both sides tensed up and readied their weapons. Uli and Max were face-to-face.

"If it were anyone else, I would have fried them on the spot," Max said slowly. "Tavarus Magnus cares more about the freemen and slaves than anyone I know. Time and time again, he has laid down his life for the good of the Realm. Everything he has done, he has done for the good of those without power, and he did all that _without_ furycrafting. You had better show some respect."

Uli looked up at Max. Defiance filled his clear, blue eyes. They were so close to one another that Max could feel Uli's breath on his face. "I came home from hell to find a land broken and bleeding, and that the son of a bitch that has made my life hell since I was a baby is still making people suffer. Don't talk to me about how things are better now and expect me to just be happy with what I have. The truth is that when the new First Lord took power, he just slapped a bunch of laws and left everyone to fend for themselves."

'Tavi _is_ doing something!' Max thought. 'He did send someone to investigate the count. He sent _me_.' Max didn't say these words out loud. His mission was on a need-to-know basis, and, as painful as it was, Uli was the enemy.

"Those are my terms, Max," said Uli.

"And the hostages?" Max was just able to calm himself down. "The nobles your men kidnapped and my missing Knights Aeris?"

Uli nodded. "Yeah, I have your men. I'll release them once you put the count in prison."

"Show me a sign of goodwill," said Max. "Send one of them over, and I'll think about your proposal."

"No deal," said Uli. "Either take it or leave it."

Max sighed. "Let me think on this. We'll reconvene tomorrow."

The two men and their guards went back to their respective camps. At least Max was making some progress: he had found the bandits, and he was closer to finding out what Count Otho was hiding. Unfortunately, he didn't have any proof. Even if Max did manage to bring Uli back to Alesis for testimony, no one would take that as evidence.

Still, at least he now knew what to look for. If only he had his crowsbegotten Knights Aeris, he could cover every Steadhold in the area and watch for any movement from the count. Also he had been hoping that his men would have some more information on the bandits after having been their prisoners.

'What happened to you, Uli?' thought Max. It had pained him to see Uli so bitter. Sure, back in the Legion, Uli had never been a ball of sunshine, but he had always been there for Max, a steady and warm presence whenever he had needed it. Strange and with a few screws loose in the head, but not in the heart.

Max forced himself to forget all that. Instead he tried to imagine that this was one of Maestro Killian's exercises. What did Max know about Uli? Uli was a freeman who lived with his grandfather after his parents had died from the Blight…

The Blight. Uli had just said that Count Otho had let countless freemen die from that epidemic. Was Count Otho the ruler of these lands when Uli's parents had died? He would have to ask Renata.

Max trained his mind back to Uli. He also knew that Uli had joined the Legion after the ruler (again likely Count Otho) took his land away from him after his grandfather had died, another even that shook him to the core.

Max also knew that Uli after he and Uli had parted ways in the Legion, Uli would go on to accept the promotion and do another turn before Kalare's rebellion started and would go on to fight in that war. After that, he fought in the vord wars, where he must have seen unimaginable horrors: people running for their lives, countless soldiers dying, Alera Imperia going up in flames. Max would never forget the look on Uli's face when they met again in Calderon Valley. The poor man couldn't go two words without breaking into tears.

And when Uli came home, despite becoming a Knight and earning his Citizenship, he never legally got back the farm that he fought so hard for. Max knew that because the deed was still with the count when he and Renata went to investigate.

When Max put all this together, it painted a picture of an angry and frustrated man filled with fear and an axe to grind with Count Otho, a recipe for disaster.

Yeah, Uli is a trans man. I was going to save that reveal until later, but, as it took almost two months for me to upload this chapter, I wasn't sure what my upload schedule would be like, so I thought I may as well show it now.


End file.
